Paris: French refineries remained shut, trains were on half service, schools closed and gas stations ran dry as unions held their fourth strike in two months against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age.
Government ministers said France has enough fuel to last several weeks and that they'll continue to use police to break up barricades at oil depots as about a fifth of the country's 12,000 service stations carried signs saying they'd run out of fuel. The Senate is set to vote on the pension measure this week, giving final parliamentary approval to a plan to eliminate the retirement-system deficit by 2018.
String of meetings
Sarkozy, who has refused to retreat from his plan to increase the retirement age to 62 from 60, was yesterday to hold a series of meetings.
"This reform had been postponed for too long and the deadline couldn't be pushed further any more," Sarkozy said at a press conference in Deauville, France. "I hope that everyone shows calm so that things don't go beyond certain limits. We cannot live without gasoline. I will see to it with the security forces that public order is guaranteed."
Prime Minister Francois Fillon was to meet with oil industry representatives yesterday to discuss keeping fuel supplies flowing. France's 12 refineries have been on strike for a week, and no crude is arriving at the ports of Marseille, Le Havre and Nantes.
"There is no shortage in the country, but there are problems with excessive precautionary buying and with getting the fuel to some places," Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said in an interview with LCI television yesterday.
The lower National Assembly has already passed the pension legislation, which raises the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, and the age for a full pension to 67 from 65. It's now in the Senate, which still has 400 amendments to consider, Senator Jean-Claude Gaudin said on LCI television. The final vote is planned for tomorrow, though the debate could last through the weekend, he said.
The government says it's still open to some small changes in the bill, and has already made concessions that will allow people in difficult jobs as well as working mothers with three children to retire earlier. It says it won't budge on the retirement ages. France's eight major unions will meet tomorrow to decide how to continue their action.
Eu softens stand
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday he was glad EU authorities dropped a legal threat against France over its expulsion of Roma migrants. "I am very happy that reason has prevailed," he told reporters in Deauville, western France, after hosting a summit for Russian and German leaders.
A European Union official said EU justice chief Viviane Reding would withdraw the threat of legal action against France, which had been accused of discriminating against the Roma minority. Reding found France had given "sufficient" assurances that it would modify its national legislation in order to better apply EU law on the free movement of EU citizens, the official said.
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